Peeling Away @ Pop Culture That's Ripe

In Defense Of… LeBron James

Millions of Americans are probably more than ecstatic to join in the schadenfreude that is the defeat of LeBron James and his Miami Heat at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, so I’m taking on my biggest challenge yet. I am going to be In Defense Of one of the most indefensible players in all professional sports. So where to begin?

The Beginning

LeBron James was born in Ohio and he played for a team from Ohio. So that’s something.

Even though he was drafted?

Um… from 2006 to 2010, he lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to the appearances in the playoffs. In 2007, he took them all the way to the The Finals, the team’s only appearance. That’s pretty good.

When “The Decision” was made to switch teams before this past season, James took a lot of heat for the way he went about it. He has since apologized for that course of action, and even though some may have viewed it as coming a bit too late, he still did it. Remember, he didn’t have to do it at all.

All the people that were rooting for me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today. I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that. They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal, but they have to get back to the real world at some point.

Basically, I was saying, at the end of the day, this season is over and with all the hatred not only myself, everyone else has to move on with their lives as well. They have to move on with their lives and their day-to-day, good or bad, and I do, too. At the end of the day, I’ve got to move on with my life. So it wasn’t saying that I’m superior or better than anyone else, any man or woman on this planet. I’m not.

Let’s think about his decision in real world terms:

He was 25 years old

He was presented a chance to play with a team that has won a championship

That team is managed by Pat Riley who has 6 championships under his belt (one as player, five as coach)